The disclosure relates generally to fluid lines and circuits for aircraft, and more specifically, to maintaining fluid lines and circuits under a variety of operating conditions.
Current implementations of deicing heaters in aircraft are connected by wired networks but provide limited communication, feedback, and operating flexibility. When such a conventional heating element or temperature sensor fails, the heater reverts to a fail-safe mode. For example, upon failure or loss of communication with a temperature sensor, the corresponding heater defaults to pulsing the heating element(s) to prevent the lines from freezing under any condition, even if heat is not actually needed at a given time.